boys can come up and hook
onto what's left. There's plenty left. I ain't saying it's as good as
mine; still, it's pretty good. I think it'll make a camp."

"Make a camp!" shouted Cheyenne Harry. "I should think it would! If
there's any more like that up country you can sell a 'tater-patch if it
lays anywheres near the district!"

"Well, I must be goin', boys," said Peter, sidling toward the door; "and
I 'spect I'll see some of you boys up there?"

The boys did not care to commit themselves as to that before each other,
but they were all mentally locating the ingredients of their prospecting
outfits.

"Have a drink, Happy, on me," hospitably suggested the proprietor.

Peter slowly returned to the bar.

"Here's luck to the new claim, Happy," said the proprietor; "and here's
hoping the sharps doesn't make all there is on her."

The men laughed, but not ill-naturedly. They all knew Peter, as has been
said.

Peter turned again to the door.

"You'll have a reg'lar cyclone up thar by to-morrow!" called a joker
after him; "look out fer us! There'll be an unholy mob on hand, and
they'll try to do you, sure!"

Peter stopped short, looked at the speaker, and went out hurriedly.

The next morning the men came into his gulch. He heard them even before
he had left his bunk--the _clink_, creak, creak! of their wagons. By the
time he had finished breakfast the side-hills were covered with them.
From his window he could catch glimpses of them through the straight
pines as patches of red, or flashes of light reflected from polished
metal. In the canon was the gleam of fires; in the air the smell of
wood-smoke and of bacon broiling; among the still bare bushes and
saplings the shine of white lean-tops; horses fed eagerly on the young
grasses and the browse of trees, raising their heads as the creak of
wheels farther down the draw told of yet new-comers. The boom was under
way.

Peter knew that the tidings of the discovery would spread. To-morrow a
new town would deserve a place on the map. Men would come to the town,
men with money, men anxious to invest. With them Peter would treat.
There was to be no chance of a careless bargain this time. He would take
no chances. And yet he had thought that before.

Peter began to forestall difficulties in his mind. The former experience
suggested many, but he drew from the same source their remedies. It was
the great unknown that terrified him. In spite of his years, in spite
of his